1st Scholarly Blog Post: The Most Coolest Graphic Designer in Postmodernism

      Clarity and readability are unique styles for poster design. Barbara Kruger is a feminist graphic designer in Postmodernism movement, and she is also an American conceptual artist. Kruger stands out among the American conceptual artists due to her unique style. Her works are clear to read, and she uses the direct method to communicate the messages with the viewers. Her design style is influenced by Minimalist graphic design. In addition, she rarely uses conventional elements in her works and she avoids using common methods to explain and communicate the subject. Audience can easily recognize her designs because she uses black and white images in the background, Futura Bold type or Helevitica Ultra Condensed type and the red, white and black shapes behind the text. The red, white, and white colors juxtapose with the black and white image are really eye-catching to the viewers. The audience can clearly see the ironic texts, controversial images, and deliberate compositions

      First, text is a very important element that conveys messages in poster designs. The text in her poster design usually has the meaning of seditions and provokes conventional concepts. Kruger likes to use concise and ironic text to express her idea.  The most common approach in her posters is the use of pronounces, such as "you", "I", "we", and “they’’. Moreover, her texts and subjects often include both tangible and fictitious connotation and she also likes to adopt various violent and impactful languages, such as the texts in her poster, “We have received order not to move”, “You kill time” and “Your body is a battleground” in her posters. Although her posters are clear to understand by audience, the author, Steven Heller, says, “she is still trying to stimulate every audience’s curiosity and imagination between the text and images. She wants her works to interact with each audience and let the audience develop his and her own interpretation.“[1]Posters are a medium that conveys information but they rely on designers to speak to audience.

                   

            The most frequently used typefaces in Kruger’s posters Futura Bold type and Helevitica Ultra Condensed, which are modern and clear. Also, they are both Sans-serif type and enhance clarity in texts. Her works primarily made in Postmodernism movement therefore the typeface has a more modern style in that period. In addition, she usually uses concise texts, so the san-serif type is definitely suitable for the text to catch the viewer’s attention. Meanwhile, the red, white and black typeface collocate with the shape of color, and can quickly to catch the viewer’s focal point. Take her poster, “You kill time”, as an example. If she had used the light typeface or traditional typeface it would have missed the focal point in the image, and the contents would not have explicitly conveyed the message to the viewers. Therefore, the way she used the typeface in the Postmodernism makes her works more unique.  

      Second, images help audiences better realize contents in posters. Kruger has explored various issues, from politics, society, religion, gender, race, to feminists’ opinions, consumption, and the greed of large cooperation. That is why she chose dramatic and controversial images. For example, her famous work, “I shop therefore I am”(1987), used the montage style. Not only did it bring her fame but also became a popular slogan in the society. She successfully used the interplay between pictures and texts, and adeptly used fables in the images. In addition, she worked on commercial posters, which required consumer’s psychology and social implications. For example, the texts in her poster, “I shop therefore I am”(1987) had an image of a hand. It could be interpreted as that consumers should not let go of the product in their hands. Furthermore, she likes to choose the image to mock consumerism. The images are always shown in black and white, which emphasizes the subjects and avoids interfering the text in poster.

 

      Third, the author, Harry Abram, says, “Kruger’s works usually build on the consistency and surprise. Her posters not just come up with the texts and images, the professional compositions.”[2] In her basic structural design, she tries to design various compositions. Although their layouts may seem very similar, they still have different structures and organizations. For example, the texts in her poster, “When I hear the word culture I take out my checkbook”(1985), were placed in oblique, and it made the unity with the subject. On the other hand, the texts in her poster, “You will kill time”(1983), were placed in center, the negative space enhanced stability in the composition. She adequately juxtaposes the text and the image in her poster, and clearly conveys the message to the viewers.

      In conclusion, Barbra Kruger is a graphic designer although she also has design on other media, such as magazine, package, and installation art. She hopes her works are not restricted in graphic design. She is not only a graphic designer but also an artist. Some people wonder why her works are still popular in society. Magers, a writer, says “Kruger has a lot of experiences with popular culture experiences from the 80s, and she is still active in popular designs such as magazine covers. At the same time, Kruger continues to absorb current popular cultures from the TV. “[3]

Thus, the combination of rich experiences and new information explains why her designs are still famous.

by Mei-Chun Lin

---

1.Kruger, Barbara, and Rosalyn Deutsche. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You. New York city, 1999

2.Abrams, Harry N. Love for Sale. New York, 1990.

 3.Magers, Sprüth. “Barbara Kruger: Slogans That Shake Society” (May 9, 2011).